Comments on: Howard only has to GetUp to get lucky

By: eva

eva — Fri, 26 Aug 2005 22:45:23 +0000

Is there a ‘functionalist’ perspective to the government’s VSU policy. I’m supposed to find journal articles and end up here because I enjoyed Gideon Polya’s article in Australian Humanist 2000! Whoa, five years and still so FRESH!!! HowarDareyouJohn!!Is he our new Emporer?

By: Benno

Benno — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 19:05:58 +0000

Ahh, the contradictions in “Zen and the art of political whinging”.

By: Benno

Benno — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 19:05:23 +0000

My email to the getup people:
I like what you are doing, spam is the only method available to us intelligent people who knew that interest rates would be the same no matter who won government, even the greens!
Nevertheless as you are probably aware there are contradictions in your philosophy and aims.
In order to make senators accountable involves letting them know that if they don’t fulfil their election promises, eg IR re-form, then we won’t vote for them.
Which we as left wing intelligent and frustrated people won’t do anyway.
Anyway I am satisfied that you are aware of this and are on that basis running a clever and much needed spam campaign.
Thanks a lot, you have really made my day.

By: Benno

Benno — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 18:58:42 +0000

My message to Coalition Senators in Victoria as through the Getup site:
Greetings Coalition Senators,
I didn’t vote for you and I don’t agree with much of your policy platform. But regardless of my opinions, a majority of the Australian people have elected you to carry out the re-form agenda of your government.
A majority to implement VSU changes, IR changes, Telstra changes and anything else you can think of that you have vaguely believed in over the last few decades.
To hold you accountable I ask that you please bare in mind the wishes of the majority when considering your respective postions as ‘balance of power’ senators. Also please disregard the views of the minority of which I am a part as to do otherwise would be a gross breach of Australian democracy, for which the punishment is eternal pain and misery in the bowels of hell.
Failure to comply with the democratic spirit of Australia will result in the almost certain devastating punishment by me by not voting for you. But then again as you can probably gather I won’t vote for you anyway.
Good luck in your gallant quest brave knights and please be aware that I will email you all individually because it is more than likely that this email will be deleted before read.
P.S.
Please spend much of your spare time listening to Bob Dylan as he is a very impressive and entertaining singer, particuarly after a hard day of Senate happenings.

By: Meredith

Meredith — Sun, 07 Aug 2005 01:27:51 +0000

well yes David…….. hes not as bad as latham, basically untill the muslims are in control Howard will keep power….

By: David

David — Sun, 07 Aug 2005 01:21:09 +0000

Old ROund Kim has not got a hope in hell either…
he may as well give up now… he knows he’s got no chance… but he’s not as think as Latham… he’s gonna hang in and lapp up the free parlamentary gravy while it’s still avalable… he’s know’s it’s his last crack at the Big Free Publicly Funded Gravy Chain… he’s not going anywhere until he really has no other option…

By: meredith

meredith — Sun, 07 Aug 2005 01:11:50 +0000

well said David, i always used to try and imagine Mark Latham trying to negotiate with Blar and Bush and would nearly cry at how obviously usless the guy was

By: David

David — Sun, 07 Aug 2005 01:03:55 +0000

Guy Wrote,
“Hewson was never really of the Liberal Party. He came in from nowhere, won a safe seat, had a meteoric rise to leader (basically because no-one else had any talent), and then crashed and burned, in some ways like Mark Latham.”
Not the same in my view… Hewson crashed and burned because his plan was to complex… he is a well educated man… that actually had a plan… weather it was wrong or right…
But Mark Latham, on the other hand crashed and burned, because the general public are more complex than him… lets face it, in reality he’s a guy the flew by the seat of his paints… and he crashed, because he throught he could not lose… he was a legend in his on mind…
quite different then john hewson i think…

By: Benno

Benno — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 12:46:57 +0000

“ANDREW ROBB, LIBERAL BACKBENCHER: It’s first and foremost, let’s not mince word, it is an anti-Government group and it’s not there to keep us accountable. it’s there to run an alternative policy agenda. ”
If getup was actually designed to make the government accountable, then they would be making sure that the government would fufil all of their election promises and follow through on everything John Howard has told the public he belives in for the last 9 years.
It is a rort. Whether I like it or not people have voted for this, so to say it is about accountability is a distortion of democracy.

By: Gideon Polya

Gideon Polya — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 08:20:32 +0000

Due to entrenched lying by omission and commission there is a huge gulf between reality and general perception on many important matters in Australia (be surprised by the example given below).
Notwithstanding Graham’s sensible analysis, GetUp may represent an additional if imperfect vehicle for addressing rampant political and media LYING and SLYING (spin-based untruth and unsubstantiated assertion) – remember the “children overboard” and the “Iraqi WMD”?. The seriousness of this continuing affront to TRUTH and REASON in Australia is demonstrated by the following example.
We are obliged to inform everyone about man-made mass mortality. I recently sent the following humane message to virtually all Senators and variously in essence to many MHRs and media (however the SILENCE has been DEAFENING):
“The average annual death rate of Australian POWs under the Japanese in World War 2 was 10.4 per 100 (8,000 deaths out of 22,000 POWs over 3.5 years) [ABC Radio National, 2003].
The average annual death rate of under-5 year old infants is 5.8 per 100 in US-occupied Afghanistan and 2.6 per 100 in US-occupied Iraq [latest UN Population Division and UNICEF data] due to gross Coalition violation of the Geneva Conventions for protection of civilians – terror indeed for the parents.
The average annual death rate of Western civilians from jihadist violence has been 0.00003 per 100 (last 20 years) and 0.0001 per 100 (last 5 years) [mainstream media and official Israel and US sources].
Current laws and procedures clearly protect us from evil jihadist terrorism – but Coalition war criminals await justice from the International Criminal Court.
Please inform Parliament and all your colleagues and associates in the national interest”.